Sea Creatures in an African-American Current

In 1991, Ellen Gallagher, then in her mid-20s, found a blue piece of penmanship paper bunched up on a street in her childhood neighborhood in Rhode Island.

"I opened it up, and it read, 'We are a drug-free school! Have a nice day!' with a smiley face," said the artist, now 48. "It was this completely absurd thing: I went into Woolworth's, bought all these penmanship-paper packs and kept hearing, 'Have a nice day!'...